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2013년 1월 21일 월요일

The study of money and banking leads us to the international currency plans envisaged by leading economists from time to time. Let us examine two important onesㅡthe Keynes Plan and the Triffin Plan. The first international currency plan came for discussion with the proposal of Keynes for an International Clearing Union. It was discussed at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1943. However, it was rejected. Ten years ago Keynes had published a book entitled Means to Prosperity. His plan for a Clearing Union corresponds to the scheme for an international gold note issue which he proposed in the book. Obviously Keynes's mind was preoccupied with the problems of world-wide depression and this remained a dominant factor when he drafted the proposal for a Clearing Union.

He put forward the idea of creating an international currency which was to be called Bancor. According to this scheme, the exchange earnings of the creditor countries would be converted into Bancor balances with the Union; these balances could be lent to the debt-countires. What is important is that these balance would involve no burden on the creditor countries. The reason is that these balances would be lent only so long as the creditor country had no use for these funds in order to finance its imports. Again, these Bancor balances were not convertible into gold; but gold was made convertible to Bancor balances. The the Bancor Plan was capable of making international lending and borrowing automatic and impersonal.